


LarryBoy and the Cherry Bomb!

by memeberd



Category: VeggieTales
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2017-04-04
Packaged: 2018-09-28 09:26:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10085696
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memeberd/pseuds/memeberd
Summary: I was html-ing this during a stream so I forgot to put a summary here take it





	1. Chapter 1

Today was your average first-day-of-summer in Bumblyburg; below steaming hot, fairly cloudy, and a frequent invigorating breeze that helped keep citizens awake in the balmy air.

As a celebration for the end of school, Laura and Junior visited the nearest candy store and each bought what they liked with Laura’s allowance. (Junior doesn’t have an allowance yet because his father is still concerned with his skill of blowing off his earnings within five minutes. Gotta work on that, kiddo.) The two children had their own bag full of an assortment of the gummies and chocolates they favored, and Laura had snagged a butterscotch cream soda at the counter to share with her best friend.

“Now that school’s out, Laura, what should we do all summer?” Junior excitedly warbled. 

Before speaking, she popped open the bottle and took a swig of the sweet carbonated beverage inside. After audibly savoring the drink, she said “Well, after my birthday, my folks and I are gonna visit Hawaii for a few months!” Laura explained, smiling. She held out the bottle closer to her friend. “You want some Junior?” Laura gasped after noticing the troubled look on his face. “What’s wrong??”

They stopped hopping and Junior kept his disheartened gaze on her.

“Oh, Junior…” Laura offered, frowning too. “It’ll only be a few months.”

“But your birthday’s in a week!!” The boy chirruped. “I’m gonna be all alone for ninety nine percent of summer??” He looked like he would collapse onto the pavement.

“You’re not gonna be _alone,_ Junior.” Laura tried to comfort him.

“But you’re my best friend, Laura!”

Laura gave Junior a bittersweet smile before he pulled her into a tight hug, carrot trying to keep from spilling their soda in the embrace.

“Why don’t you hang out with Annie more while I’m gone?” Laura softly asked.

“Annie doesn’t talk to me too much,” Junior sheepishly explained into her shoulder. “She’s real quiet too, I don’t think she likes me…”

“Oh, come on Junior,” Laura discontinued the hug to look at Junior’s face again. “Annie’s really nice when you get to know her!”

“Well sure, but, I don’t think she wants to get to know me.” Junior’s gaze shifted to the ground.

“Well, okay.” That’s exactly what defeat sounds like, children. 

Laura held the soda out to Junior again, offering him a soft smile. The shorter boy accepted it this time and sipped at the sweet butterscotch liquid, wincing at the fresh burning sensation. They started hopping once more. “I guess we’ll just have to make sure this week is the most exciting week of summer we have together, ever!”

Junior’s expression brightened at that. “Yeah, we will!” Just as Junior finished his sentence, he and Laura hopped right into a taller adult. The collision caused Junior to almost topple, but Laura caught him before he fell. The blonde pigtailed carrot scowled up at the jerk who stood in their path.

“Hey, watch where-!!” She gasped when she realised who it was; a member of the Scallion Trio! The shortest one to be exact, and he was giving them an icy stare.

“Got some treats there, kids?” He asked.

Junior was visibly shaking, but Laura puffed her chest out at him.

“Yeah we do, got a problem with it pal?” Laura spat.

The rapscallion laughed at the sight of the little tomboy in her pigtails and overalls trying to act big and tough. She was mimicking him. Darn kids. 

He answered her, “Not at all, as long as I can have a bag…” 

Junior dropped his bag faster than his own heartbeat. Laura snatched it off the ground before the scallion could. 

“No! Get your own, ya cheapskate!” Laura protested.

“Laura, no!” Junior hissed.

“Now, I’m afraid, we have a problem.” His words struck uncertainty and fear into the children in front of him as he began to advance on them. Laura remained in front of Junior who was clinging onto the back of her shirt now. She kept her chest puffed out and maintained eye contact with the criminal as he drew even closer. Time slowed down, she could think! Now, what would Laura do once he was close enough? 

That’s right!

“Wait!!” Laura shouted.

He stopped, intrigued. “Change your mind, kiddo?”

“Of course! Here, you can have a sip of our DRINK!” Laura defensively jerked the bottle in the criminal’s direction.

The Scallion was assaulted by the sensation of the cold sugary liquid launching into his face and stinging his eyes. “AGH!!” He reflexively coiled away from Laura and Junior, eyes burning. 

_Distracted!_ Was the word that flashed in Laura’s mind as she turned and started nudging her younger friend in a direction that was AWAY from the scallion. “Run, _run, run!!”_ She urged. Junior started to move, Laura pushed him to hop faster. 

He licked some of the substance off his lips. (It was just soda after all) Mmm, butterscotch. 

After blinking most of the soda out of his eyes, he noticed in the nick of time that the two kids were escaping. “Hey, get back here!” The scallion ordered, hopping after them.

They hightailed for an alleyway that connected to another street on the other side, the plan was to lose the criminal in the alley by hiding behind something and then rush to Junior’s house. It wasn’t a sound plan, but it was a plan nonetheless. Unfortunately, it was foiled by the candy-stealing onion as he quickly found them hunched on the other side of a dumpster. Laura raised the empty soda bottle.

“Come any closer and I’ll whack ya!” Laura warned.

“Yeesh, you’re really putting up a fight, kid. Listen, I just want one of your bags of candy, that’s all!”

She didn’t give him a witty response.

“Kid?”

Laura and Junior seemed to be caught in a trance, like there was a seven foot peacock standing behind him or something!

There might as well have been. The scallion gasped and whipped around to be face-to-face with his greatest rival, decked in purple and yellow, and dawning plungers on a helmet, like always. 

“LarryBoy!” Laura and Junior cheered.

There he stood in all his splendor, staring the shorter scallion down. The criminal felt sweat threatening to show on his skin.

“Picking on helpless children again, are we?” The vigilante lisped in disappointment. He shook his head, causing the shorter man in question to briefly panic.

“LarryBoy! You don’t understand, I was- uhh, _asking,_ these kids here to share their candy with me!” The criminal explained, somehow convincingly for the chronically gullible superhero.

LarryBoy looked past the rapscallion to Junior and Laura for confirmation of his statement. Laura and Junior shook their heads like mad. Of _course,_ he was _lying._ The hero swiftly turned his attention back to- Wait, _where did he go??_

“He went that way LarryBoy!!” Junior jerked his head in the direction the rapscallion darted off to, as a means of pointing since he lacked the hands to do so. Out of the alley and onto the sidewalk, the scallion was seven feet away from LarryBoy. The hero pushed himself harder to get _just a little closer_ before…

Something rolled past LarryBoy, far faster than the both of them, it was a dark reddish berry color from what he could discern. The scallion noticed it as well. Well, he _had_ to have when it burst into a thick smoke. It quickly enveloped him in a sickening haze of dark magenta.

LarryBoy halted in his tracks, where on Earth did that smoke bomb come from? He had to remind himself that mystery was not the top priority and shot a plunger into the magenta smoke. It stuck to something as planned and someone in the smoke yelped before the rapscallion was dragged out of the thinning magenta cloud and closer to LarryBoy.

“Hey, put me down man!!” The scallion protested. His yells were ignored by the preoccupied vigilante.

LarryBoy curiously hopped to where the smoke bomb had errupted.

“Please! I’m just hungry!!” His cries were still ignored.

LarryBoy picked up half of a burst smoke bomb, a dark red-berry color just like the object that had rolled past them. And now that he had a closer look at it, a jagged yellow stripe decorated the edge. A nice design. But who did it belong to?

“...You got a banana or somethin’?”

Junior and Laura emerged from the alley to thank their hero.

“Gosh, thanks LarryBoy!!” Junior chirped.

“You were so awesome!!” Laura marveled. “I tried to fight him off too! Splashed our soda in his face!”

“I saw!” LarryBoy lisped. “You did a good job protectin’ yourself and Junior before I could help out. It takes alotta guts to do somethin’ like that!”

Laura smiled, soaking the praise up.

“Would you like some of my candy, LarryBoy?” Junior meekly asked.

“Oh, no, I couldn’t-”

“I got too many peppermint patties now that I think about it, do you like those?”

LarryBoy’s face snapped into a harsh realization.

He was going to pick up some candy for Alfred today!! Goodness, he almost forgot! And Alfred’s favorites were the ones Junior was offering just now. He glanced up at the sky briefly. Should he _really_ take candy from a kid though? 

“Thanks for the offer, but I can’t take candy from kids. You enjoy your-” Junior’s bottom lip began to poke out. “Okay I’ll take it!”

Junior excitedly opened his bag and grabbed five peppermint patties and handed them to LarryBoy.

“Thanks, Junior.”

“Bye, LarryBoy!” called Laura, hopping away. Junior followed her closely.

“...can I have one, LarryBoy?” the smaller scallion asked from the plunger he was stuck to. LarryBoy generously put one in the scallions mouth.

“The rest are for someone else, you’ll get to eat more in jail.”

The rapscallion made an angry sound while chewing on the candy.

 **\---**  

“Another job well done, LarryBoy!” said Officer Scooter. He plucked the criminal from LarryBoy’s plunger and forcefully lead him to his car.

“And, make sure he gets to eat when you bring him back, he’s been complaining about bein’ hungry.” LarryBoy explained.

“Oh, we’ll feed you right good in jail, mun!!” Officer Scooter reassured the criminal, forcing him into the back seat and slamming the door.

As Officer Scooter settled into the driver’s seat, LarryBoy stopped him.

“Also, Officer- Uh,” the hero felt himself get a little nervous at the thrilled look in the officer’s eye at getting to talk to Bumblyburg’s darling superhero.

“Yes, LarryBoy?” 

LarryBoy cleared his throat quietly. “While I was chasing that rascal in your car, someone helped me catch him, they threw a smoke bomb.” LarryBoy held up both halves of the bomb now, having found the other one before Officer Scooter arrived. “I thought you’d might like to see.”

The officer was obviously about to blow a gasket, he and LarryBoy hadn’t actually talked much before this moment.

LarryBoy blushed under his mask at Scooter’s poorly hidden and growing grin. It was flattering, but really, he was just a guy in a goofy costume. “Um, I’ll hold onto these. Super hero business, if the owner of this poses a threat I’ll send ‘em your way.”

LarryBoy shot a plunger off into the air and swung away. 

“Thanks again, LarryBoy!” Officer Scooter called out from the window, watching LarryBoy glide off.

The cop leaned back in his chair. “Imagine if we had _two_ superheroes around here! My job would be so easy then! Maybe I wouldn’t have to work anymore!” He thought for a moment. “Wait a minute...”

The scallion in the backseat leaned in the cop’s direction. “Hey, I never say this but can you just hurry up and take me to the slammer? I’m starvin’ here.”

 **\---**  

“Honey! I’m hooome!” called LarryBoy when he opened the front double doors of the Larry Manor. There was no response from Alfred.

“... Alfred?” Larry called, slipping off his mask and hopping up the stairs. Was he napping? Larry knew how much of a night owl his dear friend was. Unfortunately, there was no Alfred taking a nap in bed. 

Larry smirked and headed for his own room. _“Are you sleeping in my bed??”_ to Larry’s disappointment, however, Alfred was nowhere to be seen in Larry’s room either. Dang, that would have been funny. And cute. “Oh, wait.”

Larry carelessly left his mask on a shelf near the entrance of his room before hopping back downstairs and going out the back door. Alfred’s garden sure was coming along nicely, it definitely brought more life to the mansion. Figuratively and literally. Ever since Alfred got (his hands on) that jasmine plant two years ago, it started slowly crawling up the back of the Larry Manor. It was nice, and it smelled nice too!

“Alfred! I’m back!”

“Oh! Welcome home, Master Larry!" said Alfred from the new flower bed he was laboring over. "Did you get those-”

“Peppermint patties yep wouldn’t forget ‘em!” Larry rambled. “I need to talk to you about somethin’.”

Alfred stood from the bed of marigolds he was working on and dabbed his brow with a part of his apron. “What do you need to-?” Alfred stopped himself after he saw Larry was still in his LarryBoy costume, but without his mask on. _“Master Larry!!”_ Alfred squawked, hastily shoving Larry back inside the mansion. “How could you be so careless, what if someone saw you?” scolded the taller asparagus.

Larry blushed. “Sorry, good thing we’re pretty far away from the rest’a Bumblyburg, huh?”

“Where did you put your mask?”

“Um…” Larry thought for a moment, handing Alfred his candy. “I think I left it in my room.”

“Master Larry, you can’t do that, all of your super hero items belong in the Larry Cave.” Alfred had to remind Larry of this too many times.

“Okay, I’ll be back but I still have to talk to you about somethin’!” said Larry has he hurried for the stairs to grab his mask and discard the rest of his costume in the Larry Cave.

“I’ll be here!” Alfred called, setting his candy on the coffee table and untying the navy blue apron before plopping down onto the couch.

**\---**

“I’m back, Joe!” A young dark cherry, around 15 years old, briskly hopped to her little brother, a tiny yellow tomato dawning a light blue baseball cap. She had briefly left him alone in front of a barber shop.

“You were in the bathroom for a long time.” The yellow tomato, Joe, complained. 

“When you gotta go, you gotta go.” she said. 

Joe pouted. “Why can’t you get a job like a _normal_ grown up?” 

“Do you wanna go to the candy store or not?” the older cherry snapped.

Joe’s big doey eyes lit up and he hopped in place. “Yeah!!” 

The little tomato hopped excitedly ahead of his older sister in the direction of the same candy store Laura and Junior had been to. She quickly caught up to her brother and made sure he stayed close next to her. Speaking of Junior and Laura, they were soon passing by the cherry and her brother. She offered a smile to the two before they left her sight.

**\---**

Larry returned and flopped onto the couch next to Alfred who was enjoying a second peppermint patty. “What did you want to tell me?”

“Oh, right! While I was on my way to the candy store,” Larry rolled over onto his back, head touching Alfred’s lap. “one of the scallions was trying to steal some candy from Laura and Junior!”

“Oh, that’s awful! That shorter fellow, right? That one harasses children quite a bit,” before Alfred could finish his thought, Larry continued.

“While I was chasin’ him, somebody threw a smoke bomb to help me catch him!”

“... A, smoke bomb you say?” Alfred looked down at Larry.

“Yeah!” Larry sat up and pulled out the two halves of it, dropping them onto the coffee table near Alfred’s candy.

“Oh, my.” Alfred picked one half up. “This was _exactly_ what you reminded me of.”

“You recognize it?” asked Larry, getting closer to Alfred. _“Is it someone from…?”_

Alfred shook his head. “Good heavens, no. _Not_ Britain. I read about this one in a few newspapers. Weeks ago. Follow me,” Alfred promptly stood up. “I was holding onto them incase we came into contact with her.”

 _“Her?”_ Larry asked. 

**\---**  

“She’s been described as a rebellious teenager, rarely ever using her status as a hero to do anything inherently good.” Alfred explained as the two friends made their way into the Larry Cave.

“She’s just a kid?” Larry asked.

“Yes, Master Larry.” 

“Then…” Larry held up the remains of one of her smoke bombs. “How’s she got access to _these?”_

Alfred shrugged. “We can’t know for sure, I suspect she’s getting them from someone, or making them herself.”

Alfred grabbed a newspaper from off their table and handed it to Larry, the article was on the front page of _Squash! Weekly,_ headed with “ **MAGENTA CLOUD STRIKES SECOND PUGSLYVILLE FAMILY SHOP, MONEY GONE!!** ”

“And this one,” Alfred said, handing Larry a second paper. The front page of the _Yukon Times_ read; “ **CHERRY BOMB FLASHES TENTH STORE, WHERE’S THE MONEY HEADED?** ”

Larry was taken aback. “What’s she planning to do with all that money?”

“I bet those smoke bombs are pretty expensive,” implied Alfred.

“You read alot of newspapers, Alfred.” Larry blurted before continuing to read the article on the _Yukon Times._

Aside from the problems she caused from robbing and damaging so many stores, the article went on to describe how she had the appearance of a dark cherry, about 14-16 years of age with freckles and a long stem. Larry trusted he would remember that.

“Now, I don’t understand why she _helped_ you.” Alfred prattled on. “As you know _now,_ she’s been causing lots of trouble in our neighboring cities. She must be planning on robbing the small stores of Bumblyburg next, but she couldn’t possibly want _you_ in the picture if that were the case. Perhaps she threw her smoke bomb too far?”

Larry shook his head. “I know she was helping me.”

“Unless these journalists are _lying,”_ Alfred continued. “The only reason I could recognize her smoke bomb was because so many people had recovered the remains of them after being robbed!”

Larry looked back down at the papers, there were different pictures of the remains of Cherry’s used smoke bombs; dark red with a single jagged yellow stripe. “I know Alfred…” Larry sighed. “If she tries to rob any place in Bumblyburg, I’ll be there to stop her.”


	2. Chapter 2

“We caught wind of you sabotaging our partner Trey earlier this afternoon,” Cherry’s boss, the tallest member of the scallion trio, said with displeasure. “He went to jail _again,_ because of _you.”_

“To be fair, you guys aren’t very discreet when you go about stealin’ stuff in the first place.” Cherry reasoned, dawning her bright green face mask and black spandex.

Juan, the tall leading onion, grabbed Cherry by her belt. “This isn’t a joke.” his voice dripped with poison as he lead her backward into a wall. “Our prime motivation is survival, with little trouble. No money? That puts a damper on our goal of survival. Allies working with the enemy? _That trivializes the other part…”_ Juan snarled, he slammed her against a wall. 

“Listen,” she grunted. “We’ve got different standards. I don’t sit and do nothing when somebody picks on little kids.”

Juan definitely didn’t appreciate that statement. His eyes flashed, slamming her harder into the wall. _“That’s LarryBoy’s job! You work for me!!”_

“Alright! How about, next time somethin’ like that happens, I take your boy out for dinner instead of throwing a smoke bomb at him.” Cherry sarcastically suggested.

“I’d rather have your payment instead so we can do it ourselves.”

“Then let go of me, grabby.”

Juan, now calmer than ten seconds ago, released Cherry Bomb.

“Thank you.” she said. Cherry pulled three dense wads of cash out of the pockets in her belt. Juan’s eyes lit up at the sight of them.

“Very good, Cherry…” he said, taking them from her. “As you know, we don’t just need you, you need us. And if you keep going against our rules there will be consequences… consequences worse than just a lack of your precious smoke bombs.”

Cherry said nothing. 

“Lucky for you, we have a friend here, and I think he’ll be glad to make sure you don’t slip up like that again…”

“What do you mean?” 

Delight glinted under the scallion’s lowered lavender lids, the rest of his face appeared rather unemotional. “Follow me.” He ordered and they hopped together.

Their base was an old abandoned warehouse that was touched up by the scallions themselves. Here, they ran a black market. They sold gadgets and weapons at reasonable prices, and without the requirement of a license. Because of that, every criminal in and close enough to Bumblyburg got whatever they needed from here. Over time, the scallions figured out how to persuade their customers to serve them in return. 

At this point, you could say they’re at the top of the Villain Foodchain.

This was a normal visit for Cherry Bomb. Juan lead her past a giant metal door, through a dark vacant room and into an elevator. The scallions stored all of their stock secure underground, but Cherry now was under the assumption she was going to be given more than just her bombs down there. 

Cherry cleared her throat. “So uh, who’s this friend of yours? You know, I prefer being alone so I can be more-” as her eyes glanced to him, he was glaring at her. Like she was spouting nonsense. Cherry’s face heated up. “Okay.” 

“Awful Alvin.” Juan replied, a smirk tugging at his face.

Cherry glared at Juan. _“That_ joker? You know he’s gonna mess everything up! Everyone knows that guy is nothing but incompetent, obnoxious, and obsessed with LarryBoy!”

“You can make it work.”

“He always gets jailed! What happens if I get caught because of him?”

“Then you’ll know how it feels.” 

Cherry was steaming now. _He was doing this purely for revenge!_ She kept her glaring eyes on the wall infront of them, endlessly scaling upward as they descended deeper into the warehouse.

As they approached their floor, Alvin’s loud voice could be better heard.

“There’s no way I’m working with some inexperienced little brat!” Alvin shouted, voice echoing throughout the spacious storage room. Beside him was his pleasantly indifferent partner, Lampy. “Now, if you assigned me to somebody big and powerful like _Greta Von Gruesome,_ that would be entirely different!” Alvin was holding something and waving it around as he talked, it was a grappling hook.

“Listen, man, it’s the boss’ orders.” Duri, the scallion Alvin was complaining to, explained. “If you don’t do this you’ll get in trouble, probably get your grappling hook taken away.”

“Not only your precious grappling hook, Alvin,” Juan budded in, exiting the elevator and hopping toward the three. “But everything else we’ve so _generously_ provided you with.”

_“You wouldn’t,”_ Alvin dared.

“Oh, but it’s what we do.” Juan said, grabbing Lampy by the post and tipping the content appliance toward himself. “If you can’t hold up your end of the deal,”

“No!! No, no.” he stumbled, dropping the grappling hook and protectively nabbing Lampy out of Juan’s invisible grip. Alvin clumsily bent back over to pick his grappling hook up with his free hand. “Not Lampy, you can’t have him back,”

“Then I think we know what choice you’re going to make.” Juan seemed satisfied now.

Cherry quickly joined the jumble after restocking on smoke bombs. Alvin stared at her.

“Well, get acquainted with eachother.” Juan said before hopping away with Duri. Alvin and Cherry watched them go until they were out of earshot.

“So _you’re_ the one who jeopardized Lampy and I…” Alvin growled.

“Oh, please,” Cherry scoffed. “Do you really think either of us had a choice in this? Plus, nobody would _ever_ want to work with a joker like you.”

“Oh!” Alvin tossed a rooted hand to his forehead. “I was right, you are a brat! Tell her like it is, Lampy!” Alvin shoved the smiling lamp infront of Cherry.

The lamp stood inbetween them, staring at Cherry. Smile on its face, serene, completely at ease with its own existence. 

“... You better stay out of this for your own good, Lampy, I’m not working with your pal!”

“How do you know Lampy?” Alvin inquired.

The three were too preoccupied to realise they were being watched. “Boss,” Duri’s hushed voice cracked a little. “I don’t think they’ll make it out of here if all they can do is argue.”

Duri had a point, they deserved to suffer, but not to this degree.

“Friends, friends!” Juan silenced Alvin and Cherry, hopping inbetween them. “The Cherry Bomb may still be new to this whole business,” he turned to Alvin. “But she’s not poorly experienced, just look what she brought home…” Juan waved the sizable wad of cash Cherry stole infront of Alvin’s face. Holy smokes that was alot of cash... “And she hasn’t been caught by the police yet either,” Juan continued. “when was the last time _you_ were caught by the police, dear Alvin?” Alvin’s white face flushed with embarrassment. Juan turned to Cherry Bomb now. “And, Cherry, I’ve seen what Awful Alvin can do. He’d make a great diversion. If LarryBoy comes to thwart you two, he won’t fail to distract our hero.”

“I am pretty good at that.” Alvin lauded.

At this moment, Cherry, Lampy and Alvin all decided Juan had made a good point. The taller scallion smiled at them.

“Well! Now that we’re at an agreement, I do believe you two could handle swindling someplace larger than a small family shop.” Juan said. “There’s a StuffMart on 58th street, and it’s _rather extensive…”_

 

**Ding Dong!**

Larry’s head whipped up from the coffee table. An hour ago he fell asleep in a weird position next to Alfred, who was no longer sitting nearby.

“I’ll get it, Master Larry!” Alfred rushed downstairs. “It’s awfully late, whoever it is I’ll request they come back tomorrow.” 

“Thanks Alfred,” Larry breathed before flopping his face back down onto the coffee table, nice and cool against his cheek.

Alfred stopped at the front doors. “Go to bed, Master Larry.”

“Mhm!” Larry didn’t move from his spot. Alfred would have to deal with him after their guest. And speaking of their guest, what brought this person here so late?

Alfred swung the doors open. No one appeared to be there. No, no, that couldn’t be right. His eyes drifted downward, surely a smaller fellow had knocked, and Alfred quickly regretted doing so. The person standing infront of him was Larry’s irritable, clearly obsessive compulsive ex-boss. Alfred gasped, the urge to slam the doors shut came over him.

“Hiya, Alfred. Is Larry home?” Bob asked nervously.

“What are _you_ doing here?” Alfred sharply inquired.

“I know, it’s pretty late, I’m sorry.”

“You can’t be here.” Alfred shook his head.

“Should I come back tomorrow?”

“You can’t be here _ever.”_ Alfred corrected himself, closing the door.

“Wait, _Alfred--”_ It slammed in Bob’s face. He _really_ wished he had a foot to stop those doors with. 

Well _he_ was uncharacteristically shy. Alfred was surprised he didn’t just _let himself in._ There was a second knock at the door, Alfred ignored it. Instead, he hopped his way into the living room and stood by the sleepy cucumber bent over the coffee table. It probably looked like Larry broke his back to get into this position. Don’t think about it. He’s comfortable.

“Master Larry,”

“Mmm?” Larry sucked in a sharp breath of air. “Who was it?” He asked.

“No one of importance.” Alfred lied. “I doubt they’ll return.” There was a dreaded third knock from the front, Alfred coughed over it. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Larry slowly sat up, eyes still closed. “I’m keeping an eye out for Cherry Bomb, gotta be ready, when she finally strikes…”

“Well you definitely won’t be ready in this state! Bumblyburg doesn’t need an exhausted super hero on duty!” Alfred reasoned, helping his tuckered friend up.

Larry’s eyes were slowly blinking open now. He allowed Alfred to lead him to the stairs, but he still made a weak attempt at protest. “You’re right, Alfred, but-”

“No need to fret, Master Larry. I always get you when there’s trouble, don’t I?”

“You do, but-”

“Please, _Master Larry,”_ Alfred raised his voice over a fourth knock at the door. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you. What’s so special to you about this case in particular?”

“She’s,” Larry stopped himself. He was going to say _“not a villain.”_ But that definitely would’ve made Alfred laugh. Cherry Bomb’s been stealing money from anywhere she could, so she wasn’t necessarily _“good.”_

“I don’t know, Alfred,” Larry finally said, feeling more awake than two minutes ago. “Who’s at the door.”

Alfred’s face heated up. “Ahh, that would be-- well--” he cleared his throat, being rebuked by _Larry_ was the worst feeling in the world. “It’s-- it’s just a door-to-door salesman, very persistent, those fellows,”

**Knock, knock knock!**

“What’s he sellin’?” Larry excitedly asked, hopping down the stairs. “Must be pretty important if he wants to sell it to us so bad!”

“That’s quite the contrary, Master Larry!” Alfred chased after him. “Don’t open the door! _Whatever it is we don’t need it!!”_ Alfred was certain if Larry opened the door and Bob was still there that he’d drop dead on the spot. _“Master Larry!”_

Larry opened the double doors, saw red, and slammed them back shut.

Alfred sucked in a sharp breath. Larry slowly turned to him.

“That’s Bob’s new job? I feel terrible, Alfred.”

Alfred stared, speechless for a good thirty seconds. He offered an awkward “It’s not your fault.”

Larry opened the doors again, leaning into them. “What’cha sellin’, Bob?”

“Your butler told you I’m a _salesman?”_ Bob asked, clearly offended.

“Oh,” Larry chuckled, turning to Alfred. “You were lying to me!”

Alfred sheepishly cleared his throat, eyes on the ground.

“So what brings you all the way back to Bumblyburg?” Larry asked, hooking Alfred closer to him with an invisible arm.

“I heard about the interaction you had with Cherry Bomb, and I needed to come talk to you two,”

They let Bob in.

**\---**

In the middle of downtown Bumblyburg, one of the Channel 4 News vans sat parked near the sidewalk. Inbetween the vacant, no longer used Nezzer’s Pub and a Dolly the Lion’s Pizza Parlor. Every now and then a car or fellow citizen would pass by, not even a little intrigued by the presence of the van. It was a Sunday, so Esther and her camera onion, Bruce, were off. But that didn’t stop them from driving their van around, especially at a time such as this.

The side door slid open, Esther was holding a box of pizza and a two liter of some unnamed soda. “I’m glad you could meet me so early, Bruce.”

“Hey, what are coworkers and friends for?” Bruce smiled at her from behind his hipster glasses. Funny, he was kind of “old” to be a hipster. “This is about that Cherry Bomb, isn’t it?”

Esther set the two liter on the floor of the van. “Yeah,”

“Hand me the pizza,” Bruce took the box from her. “You have a plan, don’t you? I know what your scheming face looks like.”

“It might not necessarily be a very good plan,” Esther trailed, “but it’s the only one I could come up with.”

“Hit me with it, girl.”

“You know nobody’s got any footage or pictures of her, right? Just remains of her smoke bombs?”

“Mhm,” Bruce was opening the box, getting himself a slice of pizza.

“We have to be the first ones.”

Bruce already had a hot bite of that pizza in his mouth. “Mm?”

“We have to get some sort of footage of her in action! Could you imagine what that could do for our reputation if we caught her first?”

“She’s so stealthy like a bat though,” Bruce said, “how are we gonna know where she is?”

That was where Esther was stumped. “I dunno.” She said. “I was thinking we could camp out in here and keep an eye out.”

“Hard work.” Bruce said. “I like it, but we need more to go on. Sitting around Bumblyburg waiting for something to happen is just as reliable as going gambling.”

“I know,”

Someone tapped on the side door, alarming both Esther and Bruce. They shared a glance before Esther started to slide the door open. The person on the other side stopped her after she got the door open just a crack.

“I wouldn’t open that all the way if I were you,” the nasal voice of an englishman warned.

Esther’s eyes widened, flashing back at a confused Bruce before flitting back to the door. She leaned closer to the door which remained cracked by the permission of the stranger.

“What do you want?” Esther asked.

“Oh, well I just overheard you and your friend talking about Cherry Bomb,” the englishman explained, “if you want to know how to find her, I might have some useful information.”

“Yeah?” Esther’s dark eyebrows raised. “What is it?”

“Well, I hear she’s moving onto a bigger project…” he baited her.

“How big?” 

_“StuffMart on 58th street big.”_

Esther, Bruce and stranger stayed quiet for a minute.

“Esther who _is_ that guy?” Bruce broke the silence.

“Yeah, who are you?” Esther asked through the small space in the door. “Hey!” She slid it open all the way. No one was there. “He’s gone!”

“Aw man, that’s too ominous for me.” Bruce whined, putting his third piece of pizza back into the box. He was clearly spooked. “Are we lucky, or in deep doggy doo now?”

Esther smirked. “There’s only one way to find out…”

“I doubt that, but let’s go.”

**\---**

“So…” Alfred strained himself to start a conversation. “What have you been up to recently?”

Larry had fallen asleep ontop of Alfred and Bob. They were trapped there all night and bitterly sat in silence until they, too, passed out. But now they were awake and Larry was still out cold.

“Me?” Bob was kind of surprised Alfred even talked to him at all. “It _has_ been a while,” he chuckled, trying to look at Alfred but to no avail, Larry was ontop of his head. 

“Around two years.” Alfred still didn’t seem to like him very much. Bob cleared his throat.

He continued to answer Alfred’s question nonetheless. “Well, I decided I’d pursue engineering instead of nitpicking at newspapers now. Right now I only know how to work on cars, but I’ve been looking into how to fix other things, TVs, fridges--”

“Is it better than your old job?”

_“Definitely.”_ Bob said. “Much less stressful than my old job…” 

Bob sighed after a particularly loud snore from the cucumber using the top of his head as a pillow.

“Look, Alfred, I really am sorry about how I used to treat Larry.”

Alfred scowled, not like Bob could see or anything though.

“It’s… good to know he had a friend like you this whole time.” Alfred’s scowl softened.

“Thank you, Bob.”

They sat in silence for a while.

“You know, I wondered why Larry even liked you at first,” ouch, “but, you’re quite pleasant when you’re not falling victim to tunnel vision.” Ouch!

Bob laughed. “You’re not half bad yourself when you aren’t being bitter!”

They both laughed.

The sound roused Larry from his slumber. His eyes creaked open just a bit, harshly sucking in a deep breath of air like he hadn’t really been breathing very much before.

“Did I fall asleep on you guys?” Larry asked, washed over with the urge to rub his eyes. (Unfortunately he couldn’t. No hands.)

“I dunno, you tell me.” Bob said from underneath him.


End file.
